University of Missouri seeks expansion of research, humanities

Tuesday

Feb 27, 2018 at 6:49 PMFeb 27, 2018 at 9:01 PM

Rudi Keller @CDTCivilWar

University of Missouri leaders have worried for several years about MU’s position in the American Association of Universities and on Tuesday Chancellor Alexander Cartwright set a goal of climbing out of the bottom of the association’s rankings for research spending.

The association consists of 28 private and 32 public research universities and MU’s total research spending of $250 million annually is in the bottom quarter of public members. In a speech to a crowded auditorium in the Bond Life Sciences Center, Cartwright said it would take $102 million to move up to the next quartile and his goal is to double the funding available.

The speech was an overview of actions Cartwright intends to take over the next three to five years to expand research and promote humanities on campus. One method will be to replicate programs such as the National Swine Resource and Research Center, which will create opportunities for larger grants, he said.

Other steps Cartwright outlined are to form an Academy of Curators Professors so the top faculty on campus can share resources and provide mentoring to younger researchers and to establish an Artist in Residence program to share expertise on campus.

Since the new system and campus leadership arrived last year, UM System President Mun Choi and Cartwright have focused heavily on adding to the research capabilities of the university and evaluating the quality of academic programs to determine which need more support and which could be eliminated.

Supporting humanities is an important part of the university’s mission, Cartwright said to reporters after his speech. Art supports the economy and makes life at the university more attractive, he said.

“When we go home at night, I don’t ask my wife if she wants to go and figure out how to design an iPhone,” Cartwright said. “I talk to her about, do we want to go to a play, do we want to go somewhere else and really enjoy these creative activities?”

The artist-in-residence program is another way to grow interest in the arts and will support the School of Visual Studies, created last fall by the merger of the Art, Art History, Film Studies and Digital Storytelling programs.

“The more vibrant our arts and humanities, the more people will want to come to this region and it is part of the overall strategy for attracting people to Central Missouri,” Cartwright said.

The goal of doubling research funding isn’t as daunting as it sounds, Cartwright said. The new research centers will each require $20 million to $25 million annually to operate. They will attract large grants, he said.

“What we want to do is we want to double the money we are getting from federal, private industry and also from philanthropy,” Cartwright said. “So it means a concerted effort on making sure that we are competitive for the largest grants available.”

A major part of the research effort will be the construction of the Translational Precision Medicine Complex, a proposed laboratory costing $150 million to $200 million that will bring together engineering, medicine, veterinary medicine and other disciplines into one center for collaborative work.

The financing is still being worked out but the center will focus on providing individualized treatments based on a patient’s genetics, lifestyle, diet and other factors. The center will also produce treatments that evaluate a patient’s risk factors for disease, such as environmental pollution, said Patrick Delafontaine, dean of the School of Medicine.

“The main strategic focus will be the major causes of mortality in the United States and the world, which is cardiovascular disease, cancer being the leading ones, but also of course chronic pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, and others,” he said. “So really, those are the big targets of precision medicine.”

Other initiatives announced Tuesday include a competition called the Mizzou Innovates program for students, faculty and staff to work together on major challenges in Missouri and the world and an Office of Research Advancement, which will assist faculty in writing multi-investigator research proposals that draw large grants.

rkeller@columbiatribune.com

573-815-1709

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